melted smoosh

this makes the third year that Greta has attended the sweetest Christian camp about an hour and a half north of Pittsburgh. I have never seen it advertised and it never comes up in the ubiquitous summer camp suggestion posts on various local Facebook groups. the only way I know about it is from a friend who attended as a camper herself as a child, then worked there as a counselor, and has been sending her own daughter for the past several years. she said it was absolutely wonderful, so two years ago, Greta and her daughter shared a cabin for primary camp, which lasts just over 48 hours (drop off is at 5 p.m. Sunday and pickup is at 9 a.m. Tuesday). then last year they moved up to the junior camp bracket, which encompasses 6 nights! that's a long time to be away from home for a 9-year-old, but Greta absolutely loved it and couldn't wait to go back this summer for another full week of camp.  she picked a bed far away from the door for less disruption due to night-time bathroom t

  1) a giant trampoline. the girls have been asking for a trampoline for years, and up until this summer, we've deflected with one of my most-used phrases: "not right now". there were the typical concerns about safety, and yard space, and expense. but this year, knowing that we purposely had lots of unstructured time over summer break (three whole glorious months!), we told the girls that a trampoline was on the table if they could demonstrate improvement in various areas, such as picking up their belongings without being asked, listening the first time, and -- sad to say but this is the truth -- flushing the toilet unprompted. while we certainly haven't achieved perfection, overall things are better in these domains. after a lot of research (which resulted in trampoline ads popping up all over my social media feeds and blogroll), I snagged a great deal on Memorial Day and the rest is history!  first jumps -- they were very conscientious about standing still while Eli